Sydney: Australian sports must adopt child protection policies if their athletes are to compete at the Olympics in the future, the nation’s Games chief said on Saturday.

The measure puts the issue of child abuse on an equal footing with drugs in sport, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) said. “It is not negotiable, we will reject anyone whose sport has not implemented a child protection policy,” AOC president John Coates said in a statement. “Every sport in Australia has to comply with the World Anti-Doping Code, why shouldn’t the same importance be placed on child abuse.”